SCT to stage 6 area premieres

Aug. 1, 2012

Energy-sapping heat and prolonged drought make it hard to picture the arrival of rejuvenating back-to-school activities, festive football games and enticing new theater productions. Still, it won’t be long before local arts groups unveil their 2012-13 offerings.

Springfield Contemporary Theatre is first in line, having launched its “Ten Star Season” with a trio of summer shows, “Deathtrap,” “1776” and the current “Boeing-Boeing.” The comedy directed by Rick Dines plays at 2 p.m. today and Aug. 12 and at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Aug. 16-18.

The seven works that complete SCT’s 18th year at downtown’s Vandivort Center Theatre include six area premieres that range from all-American comedy and campy horror to raunchy musical satire and dramatic social commentary.

Opening Sept. 7 is “33 Variations,” a time-shifting play by Moises Kaufman, co-author of “The Laramie Project,” mounted at the Vandivort in 2003 (and at MSU two years ago). The newer work, directed by Robert Bradley, toggles between a musicologist’s obsession with Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations” and the composer’s quest to perfect the complex piano piece.

Horror maven Nathan Shelton will adapt and direct a new stage version of George A. Romero’s 1968 zombie film classic, “Night of the Living Dead.” The Halloween-pegged engagement runs Oct. 12-31.

November sees the arrival of “Avenue Q,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty.

The comical tale of a recent college grad who moves to New York City and takes up with eccentric apartment dwellers has been dubbed an R-rated “Sesame Street” or “South Park” with puppets. Rick Dines helms the show, which runs Nov. 16-Dec. 9.

Kicking off the new year is “The Dixie Swim Club” (Jan. 11-20), a comedy-drama in the tradition of “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.” David Rice directs the story of five Southern women who meet every August to reminisce about their glory days on the college swim team and to share three decades of life’s little ups and downs.

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William Inge’s “Bus Stop” (Feb. 14-March 2) offers a second intimate look at American lives, this time at a roadside diner in Kansas where a snowstorm strands a nightclub singer, a cowboy, a philosophy professor and a bus driver with romantic ties to the owner of the diner.

Robert Bradley directs the new staging for SCT.

Following a benefit event in March, contemporary drama returns with Eve Ensler’s “The Good Body” (April 5-14). The author’s “Vagina Monologues” enjoyed two successful productions at the Vandivort, most recently in 2009.

Wrapping up the season is “God of Carnage” (May 3-18), winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play. The perverse comedy of manners pits two couples who clash over a playground incident involving their 11-year old children. Yasmina Reza’s French play, translated by Christopher Hampton (“Les Liaisons Dangereuses”), was filmed as “Carnage” by Roman Polanski in 2011. Reza’s “Art” was staged at the Vandivort a decade ago.

For tickets to “Boeing-Boeing” ($22, $18) or for information about money-saving “Flex Pass Forever” season tickets, call 831-8001.